Heart Healthy News You Can Use
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A recent national health survey shows that since 1990, the number of obese adults in the U.S. has almost doubled, to 22 percent. Physical inactivity and poor nutrition - risk factors that contribute to obesity and overweight - together are the second leading cause of premature death, lagging only tobacco. According to the Partnership for Prevention:
- The direct and indirect costs of obesity in the United States total $117 billion.
- Obesity costs our economy more than 39 million lost work days each year.
Physical inactivity and poor nutrition - risk factors that contribute to obesity and overweight - together are the second leading cause of premature death.
Three-fourths of the $1.4 trillion the United States spends on health care is to treat chronic illnesses, many of which are tied to obesity and overweight.
Young Adults who Maintain Their Weight, Even if Overweight, Have Lower Risk Factor Levels for Heart Disease in Early Middle Age
Young adults who maintain their weight over time, even if they are overweight, have lower risk factor levels for heart disease and are less likely to develop metabolic syndrome in middle age than those whose weight increases, according to the results of a large multi-center study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health and presented at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association.
"Young U.S. adults have a major problem with weight gain during these years. The minimum goal for every young adult is to try to prevent weight gain, even if he or she is overweight," said NHLBI Acting Director Barbara Alving, M.D.
The study examined the relationship over time between weight and several cardiovascular disease risk factors: high blood pressure, high glucose (sugar) levels which can indicate risk for diabetes, high triglyceride levels, low levels of good cholesterol, and a large waist.
Of the adults studied, more than 80 percent had gained weight over the years and had negative changes in heart disease risk factors, compared to 18 percent who had maintained their current weight and showed no significant change in risk factors for heart disease.
"Regardless of whether you are overweight or normal weight in young adulthood, it's really important, at a minimum, not to gain any more weight. That's a critical part of the message," said Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D., Sc.M. CARDIA investigator and assistant professor of preventive medicine and of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Weight stabilization may be easier to achieve than significant weight loss for many people, and there are clear benefits to maintaining stable weight," he concluded.
Study: Fruit, veggies good for the heart
A multiyear study involving more than 100,000 participants provides added support that eating lots of fruit and vegetables is good for the heart. The report supports the American Heart Association's recommendations to consume at least five servings of fruit and vegetables per day. Fruits were more strongly associated with reduced heart disease than vegetables, the researchers said. Among vegetables, those most closely related to better heart health were green leafy vegetables.
The truth about wine
The most studied benefit to date of drinking red wine is the lowering of heart disease. Studies on polyphenols in wine and the various compounds are shown to prevent heart disease.
Some studies say one glass of wine daily is recommended. Others suggest two. One study even recommends four to six bottles a week.
Doctors say stick to one or two glasses a day.
If you have high blood pressure, doctors recommend a glass of wine ever other day because alcohol is a factor in hypertension.
You can you get some of the same health benefits of wine from grape juice.
Depression may be bad for your heart
New research is adding to evidence of a link between depression and problems like heart attack and stroke. A study of post-menopausal women finds depression increases the chances of death from cardiovascular disease, even when there is no history of cardiovascular illness.
Women without diagnosed depression, but with depressive symptoms like feeling sad, being tired, and having trouble sleeping were 1 1/2 times more likely to die of a cardiovascular illness compared with women who had no depressive symptoms. Researchers say there was no difference in risk for depressed women who took anti-depressant medication. Nearly 16 percent of the 93,000 women studied had symptoms of depression that couldn't be attributed to a death or other misfortune.
Women with depressive symptoms were 12-percent more likely to have high blood pressure and 60 percent more likely than non-depressed women to have a history of cardiovascular illness.
Though they don't understand the metabolic connection, researchers say this adds to evidence that depression is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular illness. Several studies in the past have found a higher rate of depression among patients with cardiovascular disease.
This research is from scientists at Albert Einstein School of Medicine. It is published in Archives of Internal Medicine.
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September 19, 2008 |
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November 7, 2008 |
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